Veterans Day Rock Star: Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band Gives Back

Rock Stars and Stripes: Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band raise millions to build homes for amputees.

Gary Sinise is known for many acting roles—as the 33rd President of the United States of America in Truman, as George Milton in the film Of Mice And Men and, most recently, as Detective Mac Taylor in CSI: NY. But if recent experience is any indication, his most memorable performance was as Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump.

Last month, Sinise was giving a talk at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, to a room of 4,500 college-aged midshipmen. Though nearly everyone in the crowd hadn’t been born when the film was first released, they began chanting “Lt. Dan!” as Sinise looked out at them.

As the nation observes Veterans Day, it’s worth noting that Forrest Gump—and Sinise’s character—are among Hollywood’s most popular creations among members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Appropriately enough, Sinise has fueled this fondness by continuing to perform as Lt. Dan, albeit in a slightly different role.

Sinise launched the nonprofit Lt. Dan Band a decade ago with the intention of merging his profession (acting) and his passion (music). Since then, he and his mates have played over 150 USO shows around the world; Sinise has visited troops in war zones like Afghanistan and Iraq, where even everyday transportation can be quite harrowing.

“You get out there and you sit an hour on the plane and go ‘What’s going on?’ and they go, ‘Well they’re launching mortars at the end of the runway, we can’t go until the boys go and get the bad guys cleared out,’” said Toby Keith, who has played about 200 USO shows himself, of visiting Iraq. “And then they say, ‘Okay, there’s six planes in line, we’re going to move you guys up front because you’re dignitaries and we need to get you to this show.’”

Though Sinise may not have the musical résumé of Keith, it seems he’s plenty popular on the bass guitar. In addition to the shows abroad, Sinise has played scores of fundraisers in the U.S. with the goal of drawing attention to a growing issue for the military: how to provide for the veterans returning home as triple- and quadruple-amputees, injuries that would have been life-ending were it not for recent advances in medical technology.

Sinise has focused on this group, he says, because gruesome injuries cause many to look the other way. With the help of the Lt. Dan Band, he’s helped raise millions for the development of a handful of “smart houses” for such veterans, with three complete and two more in the works. They’re packed with sensors to turn lights on and off automatically, elevators to accommodate wheelchairs and iPad-based controls for basic household functions. Average cost: $500,000 per home.

“Some of these guys just wouldn’t have survived 50 years ago with an injury like that,” says Sinise. “They’re going to need some assistance and some help … [We] bury this technology into a home so that each one of our wounded guys can be in the home and not worry—and be independent.”

The Lt. Dan Band sprouted from a jamming group made up of Sinise and his friends in the 1990s. After September 11th, Sinise started going on “handshake tours” with the USO alongside musicians like Kid Rock. He told the organization’s brass he had a band that would be up for performing, too. “They kind of laughed and said, ‘Well, maybe,’” Sinise recalls.

He finally got his wish in early 2004, when the Lt. Dan Band played its first official USO gig. Its repertoire has since grown to include about 75 cover songs, everything from “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by the Police to “Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews to “Another Star” by Stevie Wonder.

Sinise has noticed that the latter, in particular, is a crowd favorite among the armed forces—and that’s music to Lt. Dan’s ears.

“I’ve seen out first responders in action, I’ve met some incredible people that have inspired me,” says Sinise. “I’m just trying to pitch in and do my bit.”

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A nice Veterans Day story! And while it is a drop in the bucket when compared to the overall need, the Gary Sinise Foundation has so far helped finish or break ground on 25 smart homes for wounded warriors and their families. That’s a little more than a “handful”.